I was doing my good deed for the day, <br />I only had to deliver his meal, <br />Give him a smile and a prayer, <br />Then walk away, job done. <br />But when he opened the screen door, <br />He had the look of someone who <br />had spent to many hours alone... <br />To many hours thinking about the <br />Tricks life can play on a person. <br />I saw that look in my own eyes <br />Looking in the mirror, to often. <br />The badge on my chest said 'Chaplain' <br />And I know to him it meant confessor, <br />And I hesitated knowing <br />That was not my mission here. <br />I told him I could only stay a minute, <br />Then listened as he told me about his wife, <br />Gone now for a decade, but his memory of her <br />As clear as glass. <br />'She was a damn good woman, ' he said <br />'A fine woman-just like you.' <br />Just like me, he said, as if he <br />Could see me deserving of a mans love <br />For half a century-like her. <br />I felt honored he would think so, <br />But I felt like a fraud too, <br />Knowing I was no where in the same league <br />As the woman who had been the love of his life. <br />I let him talk on, and absorbed <br />Every word, knowing he just needed someone <br />To hear him talk about her, <br />Validate their love, their life, somehow. <br />I felt at odds listening to their story, <br />At a moment in time when my own heart <br />Felt as if it had been kicked once to often. <br />My job was to offer comfort, but it seemed <br />He was comforting me, telling me <br />That it wasn't too late, to love, <br />That love lasts past death, past time <br />Love, is the only thing that matters... <br />Leaving him some hours later, <br />I felt humbled and joyous, and at peace, <br />And open to finding the man <br />Who will love me like that.<br /><br />Sandra Brennan<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/good-deed/
